


pictures on the wall

by bacondestiny



Series: on my side forever [2]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Eren and Mikasa's Maladaptive Daydream World, F/M, Gen, Minor Gabi Braun/Falco Grice, Shingeki no Kyojin Chapter 138: A Long Dream, you get a happy ending and you get a happy ending
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-20
Packaged: 2021-03-23 05:42:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30050778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bacondestiny/pseuds/bacondestiny
Summary: One-shots in the "some place to be at peace" universe.Ch 1. - Armin and the rest of the recon party react to Eren and Mikasa going missing.Ch. 2 - After seven years, a series of letters between Armin and the Jaegers.Ch. 3 - An unexpected reunion.
Relationships: Armin Arlert/Annie Leonhart, Mikasa Ackerman & Armin Arlert & Eren Yeager, Mikasa Ackerman/Eren Yeager, Reiner Braun & Eren Yeager
Series: on my side forever [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2210682
Comments: 52
Kudos: 117





	1. we don't know what is wrong tonight

**Author's Note:**

> Armin angst? on this the day that the anime version of the table scene aired? . . . . . . yeah . . . 
> 
> Diving into some of the consequences of two of the most important players in your military fucking off into the wilderness.
> 
> regardless of whether or not they ever actually would have left him, the fact that Eren and Mikasa's fantasy world doesn't include Armin is . . . [blows raspberry] Not that he would have wanted to come, for a lot of reasons that include 1. he's a good boy who's focused on the geopolitical situation and 2. he wouldn't enjoy living with his newlywed best friends in the middle of nowhere. no one would. can you imagine third-wheeling that hard? couldn't be him. 
> 
> anyway this one goes out to RikuLucilfer, who kind of requested this. I hope this is what you had in mind!

Sasha pokes her head through the door. “We’re going to bother Eren and Mikasa.”

Armin looks up. “Oh? Are they back?”

She shakes her head. “Kiyomi said they were by the refugee camp. Mikasa left to go get him like half an hour ago, we just want to make sure they haven’t gotten into any trouble.”

“Never put it past them,” Armin mutters, standing. “Alright, let me get my jacket.”

He, Sasha, Connie, and Jean head down to the refugee camp on the outskirts of the city, just visible from the edge of the Azumabito house. It’s something of a walk, and Armin half-expects to run into Eren and Mikasa coming up on their way down. “This place is so big,” he says sadly. 

“Yeah,” Sasha agrees. “I hope those two didn’t wander off too far, finding them in here will be hard.”

“I’m sure they haven’t gone far,” Jean says. “Let’s just walk around the edge here.”

 _“Mikasa!”_ Connie calls. _“Ere—!”_

“Idiot!” Jean says, drawing his arm back from slapping his head. “Marley knows Eren’s name. Try not to shout it.”

“Ah,” he says, sheepish. “Right.”

Jean rolls his eyes. 

Sasha asks, “Do you want to split up? We’ll cover more ground that way.”

“We might just end up with the same problem,” Armin points out. 

“Exactly,” Jean says. “I trust Eren and Mikasa to not get themselves killed without supervision, but you and Connie on the other hand—”

“Hey!”

“Keep talking about cars like they’re magic, Sash. See where that gets you.”

Sasha blows a raspberry at him. 

“Let’s head that way,” Armin says, nodding to the left. “Maybe they went to look at the beach.”

“Ooh, romantic,” Connie says. 

Sasha laughs. “Oh, I hope!”

Jean rolls his eyes. “Let’s go.”

Armin trails after them. He’s not sure it’s necessary to even be looking for them—Eren and Mikasa are the two most powerful people he’s ever met, they’re obviously fine; they’ll be back at the Azumabitos whenever they’re ready—but it’s nice to just be outside. _The other side of the sea._ Isn’t this what freedom is? It’s not what he pictured, but it’s what’s real. 

After a minute or so, during which Eren and Mikasa fail to appear, Sasha says, “Hey! That’s the kid who stole my wallet!”

Sure enough, the kid from the market this morning waves to them, then grabs the arm of an older man who must be his father. Armin and the rest pause their walk as the man hastily readies a tray with steaming drinks and scurries over to them. He says something that they have no way of understanding, but makes it clear he’s offering them the drinks. 

“Oh, that’s—” Jean starts to say, but Sasha and Connie have already grabbed a glass and started chugging it down. 

Jean pinches the bridge of his nose.

Armin bites back a smile and take a glass, just to be polite. “Thank you,” he tells the man.

“Shukraan yak,” he says, with a bow. He waves his arms, clearly inviting them back to the tent that his family—the boy and a younger child, and a woman who must her their mother—is in. 

“I’m sorry,” Armin says. “We’re trying to find our friends.” He makes vague hand gestures along with his words, trying to convey that they have a task. 

The man squints at them, then raises his hand up to about Eren’s height, then lowers it a few inches to Mikasa’s, waves a circle over his face and smiles. 

“Have you seen them?” Armin asks, hopeful. If they can find those two, then maybe they can spend the evening with this family and their hospitality . . . it’d be lovely. 

The man starts talking, then quickly grows frustrated and shouts back at his tent, “Miriam! Hal ymkn 'an tati 'iilaa huna, habi?”

The woman, with the smaller boy on her hip and the older kid holding her skirts, comes over to them. She and her husband exchange a few words, and then she says, in broken, accented Eldian, “Boy? Pretty girl?”

“Yes!” Armin says. “They’re our friends. Have you seen them?”

“The boy bring Ramzi,” she says, patting the boy from the market’s head. “Girl . . . come after?”

The boy, Ramzi, babbles something, gesticulating wildly. He mimes crying, then makes, of all things in the world, a kissy face, and points back the way they came.

Miriam laughs. “Your friends—cute? Happy?” She shrugs and points the same direction as her son. “They went there.”

Armin nods, a disbelieving smile fighting its way onto his face. “Thank you,” he says. He takes a healthy swig of the cup and puts it back on the tray, turns to his friends and says, “Let’s go, guys.”

“Wait a second,” Sasha says, grinning as she puts her cup back. “Did that kid just say that Mikasa and Eren kissed?”

Connie laughs aloud. “I can’t believe it! I was right!”

“You don’t _know_ that’s what he said,” Jean mutters as they start walking. 

Sasha jumps up and down, clapping. “Oh, don’t be bitter, Jean, it’s a bad look on you.”

They start jogging back the way they came. “I’m sure we just missed them,” Armin says. “They’re probably back at the house. Oh, I need to catch them! I need to give Eren a shovel talk.”

“Me, too. You owe me ten bucks, Springer,” Sasha whoops. “I told you they’d get together before we were twenty!”

“I didn’t have enough faith in Eren, I guess,” he laughs. “My bad.”

They make it back to the house quickly. When they burst in through the back door, Hange, Levi, and Kiyomi are talking calmly with teacups in their hands; they look up expectantly. “Where are they?” Levi asks. 

“Oh,” Armin says. “Are they—not back yet? We ran into some people who’d seen them, they said they were headed back this way.”

“They’re not,” Levi says, standing up. 

“They also said they _kissed!”_ Sasha says, throwing her hands into the air. “Go Mikasa, right?!”

Levi closes his eyes and sighs tiredly, like this is deeply unfortunate news. “The last thing we need right now is for either of them to be distracted.”

Hange, on the other hand, claps and grins. “I dunno, Levi, maybe they’ll be less distracted now that they’ve finally stopped dancing around it.” 

“You shut up,” Levi says, pointing at them. “You said they’d been headed this way?”

“According to the refugees,” Armin says. “If they’re not here . . . ?”

Levi sighs again, pinching the bridge of his nose like he’s in real pain. “What do you think the odds are that they found a hotel room for the night?” he asks weakly. 

Connie and Sasha burst into loud laughter, and Hange tries to mask their snickering. Armin presses his lips together, and Jean crosses his arms. Kiyomi looks shocked, open-mouthed and pale. 

“Ten more bucks on it,” Sasha says. 

“No,” Connie says. “Not taking that.”

Undeterred, Sasha turns to Jean. “You?”

_“No.”_

She shrugs. “Should we call off the search party, then?”

“I’m _sure_ they’re fine,” Hange says. 

“They’ll be on shit-shovelling duty for a week when we get back,” Levi says. “And if Jaeger gets that girl pregnant, I swear . . .” 

Armin joins Connie and Sasha in giggling like children. He can’t help it. He’s happy for them—they both deserve this; he’s so glad that they’re finally eeking out some happiness from this cruel world. As temporary as it might be, it’s better than none at all.

Levi sends them all off to bed and threatens that anyone who makes noise will be joining Mikasa and Eren on shit-shoveling duty when they’re back on the island. They head up to the guest bedrooms—nicer rooms than Armin has ever slept in—the accommodations for military guests at the palace weren’t this good. Armin has one all to himself now—he and Eren were supposed to share, as were Mikasa and Sasha, but . . .

Sasha leans in close to him and says, “How much do you want to bet they’ll try to convince one of us to switch bedrooms.”

Armin smiles and shakes his head. “I’m not doing it. As much as I love them, I’m not bringing Levi’s wrath down on myself.”

She giggles. “Who wants to wake up early with me and see if we can catch them doing the walk of shame?”

“If you think Eren’s going to be anything but obnoxiously proud of the fact that he finally bagged Mikasa . . .” Connie says. 

“As he should be,” Jean says. 

“I’ll get up with you, Sasha,” Armin says. 

“Same,” Connie says, and Jean sighs and agrees too, a moment later. 

They all head to bed, and wake with the crack of dawn to wait in the sitting room by the back door, drinking black coffee and whispering jokes. They make goofy predictions and come up with jokes to tell when they finally come in, draw lots over who gets to give Eren the shovel talk first, and debate who made the first move. It’s _fun_ to have something to gossip about, and they can’t wait to ruthlessly tease their friends when they finally get back. 

. . . Except the door never opens. 

By midday, they’ve passed from amused to annoyed to concerned. The joking dies off, replaced with genuine worry. Levi makes them go to the hearing they’d intended to to gauge the opinions of Paradisian Eldians and they learn nothing good. When they get back to the Azumabito estate, Eren and Mikasa have still failed to appear. 

“Something couldn’t have happened to them, right?” Connie says. “There’s no way. We’d have known if Eren transformed, and if he was hurt . . .”

“Maybe something happened to Mikasa?” Jean posits, rubbing his forehead. “And Eren is looking for her?”

“He’d have come and gotten us,” Armin argues. “And frankly, something happening to Mikasa is even less likely than something happening to Eren. Nobody would try anything with her—she looks like a rich girl from Hizuru, and even if they tried, she can handle herself.”

“If someone had kidnapped them, we’d have gotten ransom by now,” Hange says. “And again—I cannot imagine that anything happened to Eren or Mikasa and the entire city didn’t immediately know about it.”

“So then where are they?”

Lurking in the doorway, Levi says, “Every hour they make us wait is another week of stable duty. If I find out they’re just screwing themselves stupid . . .”

“Be nicer,” Hange says, although she’s clearly stressed as well. “Maybe they found something. Maybe they have some sort of plan. Eren can be irresponsible sometimes, but do you honestly think Mikasa would let him get away with disappearing in Marley unless it was for something important?”

“I think that girl would cut off her own foot if Eren asked her to,” Levi spits. “I think they’re young and reckless, and Eren’s been a headcase for ages. If they’ve done something stupid—”

“What do you think they’ve done?” Armin demands, defensive. 

Levi levels him with a look. “I don’t know. But I have a feeling that I’ll disapprove.”

Jean grabs his hat. “Should we go back down to the refugee camp? Ask around some more?”

“Sure,” Armin says. He stands up stiffly. He can’t believe anyone is implying—they’re implying what, that Eren and Mikasa just _ran off?_ That’s ridiculous. Armin knows them better than anyone; they’d never. 

Hange takes Armin and Connie into the camp while Levi takes Jean and Sasha along the sides. Armin’s party spends two hours questioning the refugees as much as they can, but they get far less out of them than they’d gotten last night. Miriam’s limited Eldian was better than ninety-nine percent of the refugees’, and to those few who understood what they were saying, when they try to describe a dark-haired Marleyan boy and a pretty Hizuran girl, they’re met with blank stares. 

When their watches read five o’clock, they head back to the road that leads back to the house, as they promised the others they would do. Because they’re responsible and communicate clearly. Armin’s stomach flips and flops. Something has happened. Something has happened. 

When they see the path, Levi, Sasha, and Jean are standing there. Levi and Jean are stone-faced; Sasha looks sick. 

Armin’s stomach turns to lead. 

“Guess what,” Levi says dully. “We found a little church. Father Nasir was happy to tell me about the sudden wedding they threw last night for a young couple made of a Marleyan boy and a Hizuran girl.”

Hange presses her hand over her mouth. Armin’s knees threaten to give out. 

“He also informed me,” Levi continues, “That after the ceremony, this couple continued heading south. Which is the direction, you’ll be thrilled to learn, of a passenger train station for a railroad that operates across the entire continent.”

Armin staggers. “They didn’t—” he says. 

“They did,” Jean says, cold. “They left us.”

He shakes his head. “They’d never! They wouldn’t—”

 _Leave me,_ he thinks. But—

A kaleidoscope of images whirls through his head. Eren and Mikasa coming back from their basement, the awful, jagged, negligible distance between them; Eren and Mikasa sleeping curled into each other when they were kids in the labor camps even in the summer months; Eren and Mikasa far away from him on the field where Eren first used the Coordinate; Eren and Mikasa when Eren first introduced her to Armin, the way he’d held himself up taller and angled himself in front of her; Mikasa trying to die when they thought Eren was dead and sobbing her heart out when he emerged from his Titan; Eren losing his temper for the first time in the courthouse when Mikasa was threatened, ready to throw himself on their swords; Eren and Mikasa staring at each other under a tree on Historia’s ranch just a few weeks ago, looking at each other like there was nothing else in the entire world they’d ever want to see. 

Eren leaves them behind, but Mikasa has always been able to catch up to him. Sometimes Mikasa stays with him, and sometimes they both do, but he remembers racing up that hill when they were children; Eren rocketing forward and Mikasa half a step behind him to let him win, while Armin was left trailing after them. When they were children, every day when they were done playing, Eren and Mikasa ran home together, without him. 

But—that’s different. They lived together, back then. And they never left him without saying goodbye, without a _“see you tomorrow!”_

_They wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye,_ he thinks. _They wouldn’t leave me. They wouldn’t._

“I don’t believe it.” He shakes his head. 

“There were thirty witnesses,” Jean tells him.

“Fine!” Armin snaps. “So they eloped, whatever—that doesn’t mean they abandoned us. I’m sure they’re coming back.”

“Do you hear yourself?” Jean says, sneering. “I don’t know about you, but fucking off in the middle of the night, eloping, and hopping on a train, without a word to anyone, doesn’t scream “planning to come back” to me.”

Armin throws his hands up. “Do you think this was a plan? Maybe—maybe they were impulsive, but . . . They’ll be back.”

“How many times have you known Eren Jaeger to turn back from a decision?

Armin flounders. The only thing that comes to mind in that moment is the night before their return to Shiganshina, when Eren had admitted to Mikasa that he’d been jealous of her strength, and that seems unlikely to help his case. 

Hange swallows a few times. “If they do return,” she says, “We’ll have no choice but to punish them for desertion. If they fail to appear within the next few days, or without sufficient explanation, punishment may be corporal.”

Sasha turns away. 

“We can’t look for them,” Levi says. He looks down at his hands. “They could be anywhere on the continent right now. We don’t have the time or the manpower. We need to get back to the Azumabito house and try to come up with a plan.”

Connie stalks forward stiffly to the rest, and Hange follows. She puts a hand on Armin’s back to guide him forward—he might not have come if she hadn’t.

 _They wouldn’t,_ he thinks. _They’ll come back._

***

Not a day goes by for years that he doesn’t think about them. Where did they go? Why? Through all the chaos of the next few years: the bombshell-fragile peace talks with Marley, the weakened alliance with the Azumabito, the slow tide of dread as global war threatens their island, Armin thinks about them. He wonders if they’re well, if they’re happy, if they miss him, if they regret their choice. He hopes they do. He hopes they don’t. He hopes they’re happy, he hopes they know what did, he hopes that Eren dies in his sleep and Mikasa comes back so he can see her before his time is up.

He knows _something_ is happening, and he’s sure that Eren, the Founder, is at the center of it, when the shifters begin losing their powers. 

It’s a blessing and a curse. Armin had been serving well as an ambassador, and the fact that he’d made it through tough negotiations without eating anyone had been a point in Paradis’s favor. But when they lose their powers—and Eldians everywhere are suddenly unable to become Titans at all—it gets . . . tricky. 

But the earth continues to turn, and eventually, the sun begins to rise on a world that has begun to stop holding its breath.

***

Armin is twenty-six years old and he wakes up like any other day. Annie is still snoring beside him, the sunlight glinting through the windows, when he climbs out of bed. He sets the coffee pot on the stove so that his girlfriend won’t be crankier than a bear when she gets up. There’s a pile of letters shoved through the slot, yawning, he picks it up and sets it on the table. He gets started on breakfast, warming the biscuits and the butter. Only after he’s set out the jellies does he go through the mail.

The envelope for rent, Historia’s updates, this month’s round of coupons for Levi’s teashop. He flips through them idly. There’s a missive from Hange that’s work-related, and a sketch for a speed blimp that’s not. Annie’s father wrote—he’ll be coming for a visit in the next week or so, which is lovely. Annie’s always so happy to see him. They’re getting closer and closer to convincing him to move to Mitras permanently. Maybe if he proposes, Armin muses. Or gets her pregnant . . . 

At the bottom, there’s another envelope sent from Marley. Armin takes one look at the neat, looping cursive, and his coffee mug slips from his hand and shatters on the floor. 

_Armin Arlert,_ it reads, in handwriting he recognizes from classroom chalkboards and co-signatures on paperwork, from eight-year-old letters sent between the port and Mitras when he was in the city on business and Mikasa remained by the seaside with Kiyomi, that he rereads like clockwork every few months. 

With shaking fingers, he pulls out a letter that begins, 

_Dear Armin . . ._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. when the titan powers evaporated as Ymir was getting herself reincarnated as em's Carla, Annie came out of her crystal and she and Armin are together now. dw about it.
> 
> 2\. Is this how the titan magic/science and also the geopolitical situation of the aot world would work? doubtfully. but again this is my au and I say ✨no realism, only happily ever after✨ Just don't think about it too hard.
> 
> if y'all have anything you'd like to see in this au, lmk! And thank you for reading!


	2. the sun was starting to rise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> not the EMA reunion quite yet, but we're getting closer.

_Dear Armin,_

_First of all, I want to say that I’m so sorry. We both are. Running away wasn’t something that we had planned to do, and if we had given any thought to it, we wouldn’t have left the way we did. Ideally, you would have come with us, but I don’t think you would have wanted that. But we should have said goodbye to you. At the very least, we should have left a note. You deserve better than what we gave you. Eren can explain why we ran, why we felt that we had to, better than I can; I’m sure he does in his letter. But I want you to know that I’m sorry. I miss you every day, and I wish you could be here with us._

_Eren and I have been okay. We have a home in Svizzera, and we live well off the land. We’ve been happy. We’ve lived in relative isolation, and we barely got any news from the outside world, but we heard about the peace talks between Marley and Paradis, and about your role in them. I’m so, so proud of the man you are, Armin. You’ve made your parents and your grandfather prouder than you can fathom until you have children of your own._

_On that note, I want you to know that you have a nephew, and a niece, and another one on the way. Noah is six, Carla is almost three, and the baby is due in June. I wanted to name Noah after you, but Eren said he didn’t want to do that because you weren’t dead, so we compromised and it's his middle name. We tell the children stories of their Uncle Armin all the time; they love you so much, even if they’ve never met you._

_That’s the second reason why we’re writing._

_Even if it’s just to yell at us, if you think that seeing us would give you any measure of peace or joy, then I want to give it to you. We have no right to ask this of you, but we’re asking anyway. Armin, I would give anything to see you, or even hear from you at all. I’m sure we’re wanted for desertion on Paradis, so I don’t know that we can ever go back, but if you want to see us, we’ll be here. You can write us back at this address and we’ll receive the letter._

_I love you more than I can put into words, and not a day goes by that I don’t miss you. Noah reminds me of you, you know? Eren says he takes after me, but he’s curious about the world in the same way you were when we were children. Carla is too, in a way, but you never ate bugs. At least not that I remember._ _I’m so sorry for any pain we’ve caused for you in these past years, and if you’re willing to let us, we’ll spend the rest of our lives trying to make it us to you as much as we can._

_With love,_

_Mikasa_

**Armin,**

**There aren’t words to say how awful I feel that I left you. At all would be bad enough, but I left you with the weight of the world on your shoulders. I essentially passed my burden onto you, and stole away myself and Mikasa in the process, and for that, I can never apologize enough.**

**I want to try and explain myself to you. I hope that you don’t rip this up before reading it, but if you do, I won’t blame you. I’ll try to be as brief as possible.**

**The long and short of it is: I was going to activate the Rumbling. The Attack Titan’s special ability is its power to pass memories from an inheritor’s future back in time. That is to say, I don’t just have some of my father’s memories, and those of the men who came before him; they had some of my memories. That’s actually why I met Mikasa in the first place—Eren Kruger, the Attack Titan before my father, told him her name and yours before he gave my father the Titan, so my father made sure that I would meet her. All this to say: in the ceremony after the Battle of Shiganshina, when I kissed Historia’s hand, I received years’ worth of future memories. And they culminated in the Rumbling.**

**I spent years exploring every other option with the rest of you. Trying to buy time, trying to make peace, trying to forge alliances. But during all that, my memories of the Rumbling never faded. I knew that it was going to come, and that I was going to bring it. When we all went to Marley on that scouting mission, all I could see was the ruin that I was going to bring. I saw pregnant women and knew I would crush their babies; I saw children and knew I would smash their bodies as they tried to hide; I saw everything beautiful and knew that I would stomp it to a pulp and wash it with blood.**

**And I couldn’t do it.**

**When Mikasa found me by the refugee camp that night, I would have given anything in the world to run away from it all if I had anything to run to. When I asked her what I meant to her and she confessed to me, it was like everything evaporated. Suddenly the option was on the table to just spend the last four years of my life with her, and I couldn’t resist it. I’m sorry for the position that left you and everyone else on Paradis in, Armin, but I can’t regret it.**

**I hope you don’t blame Mikasa, Armin. She was so confused when I asked her to run that I had to start pulling her by the hand before she began to move. For a long time, I think, she regretted it, but in the end we’d made our choice. And then, of course, we had Noah, and any other choice we could have made didn’t matter.**

**Noah is our son, by the way, in case you’re reading my letter first. He’s six now. Mikasa wanted to name him after you, but I thought that would be weird since you weren’t dead. And now, I haven’t given up on seeing you one day. Our daughter, Carla, turns three next week. She's getting so big so fast, it breaks my heart. If this helps you, she’s exactly like me, so know that I’ve received some punishment for what I did to you. (That’s kind of a joke. I love Carla more than anything in the world, but she is a headache at times.) Mikasa’s pregnant again, with a kid due in June. I’ve been right both times so far, and I think this one’s gonna be another girl. If it is, we’re gonna call her Bell.**

**I have an idea, because I knew you so well when we were younger, of what you must be feeling about us. I can’t know for certain, though. But if I know you like I once did, then I think you’ll be glad to hear that we’ve been happy. I know I’d want the same for you, if our positions were reversed.**

**Although, actually, if _you_ had eloped with Mikasa, I’d have been a lot of things and “happy” wouldn’t be one of them, and I can admit that even if it hadn’t been with her, I’d be royally angry with you. But you’re a better man than me, Armin. I always knew you’d save the world.**

**Feel free to show this letter to the rest of our friends, they deserve an explanation, too. We’ll be waiting on your response, if you chose to send one.**

**I love you and I miss you and I’m sorry,**

**Eren**

***

Eren and Mikasa,

You’re right, I do have every right to tear up your letters and pretend that you’re dead. You left us with an impossible burden, and for years, it seemed the destruction of our home was inevitable, and that you had abandoned us to it. I was so incredibly angry with you for so long, and hurt for so much longer. When you first disappeared, it took us more than twelve hours to realize that something might be really wrong. When we found out about your elopement from a Mid-Eastern priest, I couldn’t believe that you two had really just up and left us. For days, I was sure that the pair of you would come back, tails between your legs. I couldn’t believe that you would leave me without saying goodbye. I’ve always known that what the two of you had was different than what either of you had with me, but I never thought I meant so little to you that you would leave forever without a word of goodbye. You were horrible friends to me, and traitors to our people.

But . . . I think I might understand.

Eren, thank you for your explanation. That explains so much about your behavior and attitude during those years. If I had something like that in my head, I’m sure I would have wanted to run, too. And if you say that your running away was what prevented the Rumbling from coming to pass . . . then it was worth it. The world isn’t perfect, but it’s always been worth protecting, and things are alright for now, at least. And since the Titans are gone forever now (did you have something to do with that?), it seems like the world is able to trust Eldians. They seem willing to try, at least. So maybe, in the end, this was for the best.

Mikasa, thank you for your words. It does give me comfort to know that you’ve missed me as much as I’ve missed you, and it makes me happy to know that you’ve told your kids about me. I’m glad to hear that you’ve been happy. Three kids in seven years, you two, really? Calm down.

I’m sure you’ll be glad to know that things are mostly alright, here. Captain Levi has opened a teashop, and he’s happier than I’ve ever seen him. Sasha and Niccolo got married last October, and they also have a baby coming in June. Historia is thriving, and her daughter, Ymir, is a perfect princess. Jean and Connie and Commander Hange are all doing well, too.

I’ve been happy, as well. Annie’s crystal shattered when Titan powers vanished, and we’ve been together for nearly three years now. I’m thinking of proposing. I’ll be asking her father, first. Unlike some, I’m not interested in an impromptu, secret wedding thrown in a language I can’t understand and attended by people I don’t know and fleeing the country afterward. We’re going to Liberio to visit him in July. I’d like to see the two of you, and my nephew and nieces, then. Write me back and we’ll arrange the details.

You two are my best friends. I’m not sure if I forgive you, but I know that I love you, and I’d like to see you again.

Armin.

***

**Dear Armin,**

**I’m writing our initial response, because Mikasa is still kind of crying too hard. (She’s more emotional this pregnancy than she was with even the first two, which is funny when you consider that we thought I’d die before Noah was three or Carla was born.) For what its worth, I’m crying as well. They’re happy tears on both our parts, I promise.**

**Again, you’re right, you’ve every right to tell us to fuck off forever. But we’re both so glad you haven’t. Yet, at least. You’re our best friend, too.**

**For one, congratulations on Annie! You had a crush on her for ages in our cadet days. Tell her we say hi. And I guess that we’re sorry we got her trapped in a crystal for years? Actually, that seems like too much to get into in a letter. But I’m very happy for you. Also, trust me on this: propose. Marriage is magical. Not that Mikasa and I dated before we got married. It sounds like you guys have some idea of how that went down? But yeah, Mikasa and I confessed for the first time and then we got married something like twenty minutes later.**

**I’m rambling. We can catch up better in person. If you really want to meet us in Liberio, we’ll meet you by the water fountain on Via Sacra on July 20th at noon, if that works for you. We’ll buy you lunch. And dinner. Let us know. If she’s there, too, we’d be glad to see Annie.**

**Thank you for telling us about everyone else. Levi opening a teashop is hilarious, but somehow fits perfectly. It’s so cool that Sasha is gonna have a kid the same age as our youngest! (Re: us calming down—we’re definitely going to try, but none of the kids have actually been planned. But this one will probably be our last.) Noah is probably only two months or so younger than Historia’s daughter. I hope you’ll tell us more about everyone.**

**Love,**

**Eren.**

_Dear Armin,_

_Thank you for agreeing to meet with us. I can’t wait to see you. Again, I know it’s our fault, but I’ve missed you so much. Of course we did. I can’t think of anything more to say, other than I love you, I love you, I love you, and I’m very excited to see you. But Noah and Carla do have more to say to you:_

UNCLE ARMIN

MAMMA AND DADDY SAID WE ARE GOING TO SEE YOU SOON. I AM VERY GLAD. YOU ARE A PART OF MY NAME! SO I AM HAPY THAT I WILL SEE YOU. MAMMA SAYS I'M LIKE YOU. I HOPE WE WILL BE FRENDS. I WANT TO SHOW YOU MY FAVORITE ROCKS AND BIRDS.

NOAH JAEGER. ❤

_And Carla can’t really write yet, of course, but she drew this picture for you._

__

_And she wanted me to tell you that she’s just as excited to meet you as she is to be an older sister. Take it from me, that’s high praise—she can’t wait to have a baby sibling._

_All my love,  
Mikasa._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. armin gets to be a little bitchy. as a treat.
> 
> 2\. "Svizzera" is upside-down-Titan-world Switzerland; "Svizzera," according to Google, is the Italian name for Switzerland. Have I mentioned how much I love that apparently the place they settled is the place in the world best known for being peaceful? (or neutral, whatever.)
> 
> 3\. I hope I didn't make it seem like Armin is a lesser part of EMA. they both love him so so so much, and I really tried to get that across . . . but the fact is that he wasn't a part of their selfish dream. And that's . . . natural. They're in love with each other; of course their dream is the pair of them alone. Never to their degree, but I've definitely had fantasies of running away to marry my boyfriend, and even though I'm closer to a lot of my friends than him, they've never been included in those fantasies lmao. 
> 
> 4\. it's important to me that you all know I can draw better than what I gave you there. however I spent about five minutes on it and the art style I was going for was "if a two-year-old drew it," so frankly I think I gave Little Carla some pretty kickass drawing skills, for her age. 
> 
> 5\. even if the officially translated text implies that it was Mikasa who suggested running away, I can't imagine that. _Eren_ was the one who was looking for a reason to run. Mikasa has always been happy to just be wherever Eren is, even if of course she preferred a peaceful life. She wouldn't have much reason to ask to run away, certainly not compared to Eren. That, and Eren is clearly leading her in the panel of them running. The absolute most I can see is if the conversation went like this:
> 
> Eren: what am I to you?  
> Mikasa: well, I'm in love with you, and what would make me happier than anything in the world is if we could spend your last four years together happily.  
> Eren: ah _**hell**_ yes okay let's go.  
> Mikasa: what?  
> Eren: you want to go spend the rest of my life happily? Let's go. Let's run away from all of this, find a house or something, just the two of us for as long as I have. Let's do it. I'm in love with you too, by the way. Let's _go,_ honey, time is a-wasting!  
> Mikasa: . . . okay? Yeah, uh. okay. sure!
> 
> so I will be sticking to a version of events like that. 
> 
> thank you for reading!


	3. children clinging to their coins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A reunion. 
> 
> Just . . . not the one y’all have been looking forward to lmao.
> 
> Pretty much crack, but I do consider this canon in the au.

When Reiner fails to die, his only thought is, _yeah, that about tracks._

They hadn’t seen it coming. Zeke had gone missing on a recon trip to Paradis months before his time was up; they’d assumed that the Beast Titan would pop up in some infant somewhere, but now, as Reiner and Peick continue to live, they have to wonder. 

He’s . . . glad for it. He guesses. Mostly for the kids’ sakes—he never wanted Gabi to inherit this awful burden, or Falco or Udo or Zofia. All those poor kids, breaking their backs for a shot at glory for their motherland and peace for their families, none of them deserved it. 

And he didn’t deserve to die, either. 

The peace talks with Paradis Island aren’t the _most_ stressful time of his life, but they lose only narrowly to being seventeen and trapped between the lives he was living. Seeing fragile little Armin every day, knowing it was his mouth that Bertolt had gone down screaming, is a special kind of torture. It’s odd to see him without Mikasa—who he still has nightmares about—and Eren flanking him, but for obvious reasons no one from Marley is allowed to even be within the sight of the Founder, and with Captain Levi there, it makes sense that they’d keep their other Ackerman out of reach. Frankly, the Ackermans were as much of a threat as any Titan. More, in some ways. 

The peace talks take a turn for the worse in November of 852, when Reiner and Peick fail to begin dying, and suspicions escalate steadily until May of 854 when, abruptly, Titans vanish entirely. Serums are completely useless. The few captive Titans that still existed keeled over and died on the spot. Reiner and Peick and Armin lost their abilities entirely. The next few months are a frantic scramble on a global scale as Paradis and Marley join in an uneasy alliance against the rest of the world, backed tentatively by Hizuru, but in the end . . . it all quiets down. 

The world seems, for a little while, at least, to be at peace. 

So Reiner doesn’t expect any trouble when Falco asks if he can drop him and Gabi off downtown at six. 

“Are you two going out?” he asks, not looking up from his book.

“No,” Falco sighs. “Gabi’s babysitting.”

That does make him look up. “What?”

“Gabi got a babysitting gig. And she’s dragging me, obviously. Did she tell you about that couple we met at the post office?” he says. “The Kruegers?”

“Gabi mentioned them briefly,” Reiner says. “They were from, where, Svizzera, right?”

“But they didn’t have the accents, yeah. Gabi fell absolutely in love with their kid because she was eating live bugs—”

“Just like Gabi used to,” he recalls fondly. 

“Yeah. So, Gabi was talking about the play we saw last week to them, and Mrs. Krueger mentioned that it sounded great and she’d love to see it but they couldn’t take a six-year-old and a two-year-old into the theatre, and Gabi volunteered us to watch them.”

Reiner shakes his head. “Alright, sure. It’s nice to see she’s finding less destructive interests. And,” he adds slyly, “It’ll be good for you two to get some practice.”

Falco blushes. “Shut up,” he whines, and Reiner laughs.

“I can drop you off, make sure you two aren’t being taken advantage of, and pick you up. What time, ten, do you think?”

“Probably closer to nine? Mr. Krueger didn’t seem thrilled that we were gonna be watching his kids.”

“Dads can be like that,” Reiner says, though he doesn’t really know. 

“Cool. Thanks, Reiner,” Falco says happily. Reiner accepts the high-five as the kid hops out of the room, and Reiner tries to remember if he was ever that carefree at eighteen. 

Later, Reiner is driving Gabi and Falco through the streets of downtown Liberio to a decent hotel when Gabi literally leaps out of the car and sprints at a group of four. “CARLAAAAA!” she shrieks. A tiny shape detaches from a larger pink one and rushes forward to greet her. Reiner slams on the breaks while the pink figure—Mrs. Krueger, presumably—catches her daughter before she runs out into traffic. 

Falco also leaps out of the car to apologize for his girlfriend while Reiner, swearing, parallel parks. Goddamn fucking kids, he thinks. Why the fuck was Gabi ever allowed near weaponry?

Like an adult, Reiner slides along the bench of the car to the sidewalk and opens the passenger door. “I’m so sorry about that,” he says, looking down at the little family. Mr. and Mrs. Krueger are kneeling in front of their daughter, a cute little thing with a black braid stuffed in her mouth, scolding her, while their son looks up at him. 

He’s a cute kid, Reiner thinks. He’s got the same black hair as his sister and their mom, chubby cheeks, and brilliant emerald-green eyes like Reiner hasn’t seen in years. 

“Oh, it’s fine,” Mrs. Krueger says, looking up to face him. “This is her first time in the city, she doesn’t . . .”

. . . 

. . .

. . .

Noise. White noise.

Reiner stares down at Mikasa Ackerman. 

Mikasa Ackerman stares up at him. 

The noises of the city around them have faded away, replaced by an awful, painful static. 

Reiner pinches himself.

Mikasa Ackerman remains painfully present.

 _Where’s her scarf?_ is, somehow, the first thought his brain produces. Reiner could probably count on one hand the number of times he’s seen Mikasa without her red scarf.

 _What the fuck?_ is his second thought. Beacuse—what, what, what the fuck? What the _fuck?_ Is Mikasa Ackerman doing here? In Liberio? With—a kid? _Two_ kids?

Reiner shifts his gaze to the man with her and just completely shuts down. _Eren Jaeger_ here, in Liberio? In Marley? What. Are they all about to die? Reiner half-wants to slice open his palm, or even bite into it like Eren used to, the feral fucking goblin, but his abilities have been gone for years. 

Eren snaps to attention and stands. His mouth opens and closes once. Then, cool as anything, he says, “Hey, Reiner. It’s been awhile.”

It takes a few seconds for any sound to come out of his throat. “Eren,” he manages eventually.

“Oh, do you two know each other?” Falco says. 

“We’re old war buddies,” Eren says. “Reiner. You remember Mikasa.”

“Every night when I close my eyes,” he says, which, when he looks back in retrospect, is a weird response.

“Gross,” Gabi says, scrunching her face.

“What?” Reiner says. “No, not like—oh, my God.”

Mikasa nods to him. “Hello, Reiner,” she says. “This is a surprise.”

Reiner makes some garbled noise of agreement.

Eren helps her stand, which is fucking surreal to witness and only makes sense when she’s straightened up and he can see that she’s pregnant. Not like, incredibly pregnant, but still decently pregnant. What the fuck?

He looks down at the two kids at their feet. The older boy has a hand fisted in Mikasa’s jacket, and he has green eyes and black hair; the girl looks like a miniature Mikasa if a maniac did her hair.

“What the fuck?” he says aloud. 

“Hey,” Eren snarls. “Don’t curse in front of my kids!”

“You . . .” _actually got with Mikasa?_ is what he means to ask, but he can’t get the words out. He feels like he’s been trampled. “What is going on?”

Eren sighs. “It doesn’t look like we’re getting that night out, after all.”

“What?” Gabi says, frowning. “What’s wrong?”

Mikasa laughs. It might be the first time Reiner’s ever heard her laugh. He’s not sure, but it sounds fake. “I think Eren and Reiner have some catching up to do,” she says. “Gabi, Falco, would you two like to come up for some snacks?”

“Sure!” Gabi says. “Are we gonna eat more bugs, Carla?”

“Yes!” the little girl cheers.

“Please don’t,” Mikasa sighs.

“Don’t,” Reiner seconds. 

Eren squeezes Mikasa’s hands. “I’ll be back up in a few,” he says. “I’ve got this under control.”

Mikasa nods. “I know.” She presses a quick kiss to his cheek and Reiner’s brain melts a little bit more, because a bunch of corpses owe him money, and shuffles her kids and Gabi and Falco into the lobby of the hotel. 

“So,” says Eren Jaeger. “You’re lucky we didn’t actually buy the tickets yet. Let’s grab a drink, shall we?”

***

The silence is incredibly awkward for a few minutes while they simply nurse their bourbons. The bar they’re in is still quiet, and they’re some of the only people here. Reiner, despite all the evidence to the contrary, is only half-sure that Eren’s not about to kill him. _Get away from us!_ rings through his head. _You bastards, **I’ll kill you where you stand!**_

But—they’re in public. And Eren didn’t bring Mikasa. If Reiner assumes his Titan powers are gone, which he does, it would be wisest to bring that woman. And Eren doesn’t seem half-out-of-his-mind with rage like he had when they were young. He’s calmer than Reiner has ever seen him, actually. Which is alarming in its own way. 

Not as alarming as Eren Jaeger, once-holder of the Attack and Founding Titans, casually being in the streets of Liberio. 

Eventually, Eren sighs and says, “We’re sending a letter.”

Reiner’s brain doesn’t quite make sense of that. “What?”

He nods all around them. “Mikasa, and me, and the kids. You’re wondering what we’re doing here, right? We’re sending a letter. Can’t do that straight to Paradis from Svizzera.”

Svizzera? Oh—that’s right, Gabi and Falco had said that the Kruegers were from Svizzera. But, wait, that makes even less sense. “What were you doing in Svizzera?”

He shrugs. “What everyone does in Svizzera. Living peacefully.”

Reiner has to take a long drink of his bourbon. _What?_

Eren looks over, eyes hard. But—there. The corner of his mouth twitched. If Reiner didn’t know better, he’d think Eren is enjoying this. 

“. . . How . . . ?”

“Did we come to be in Svizzera?” Eren finishes. “We deserted. Seven years ago. Look at that, Reiner. We’re both traitors.”

Reiner begins to sweat. “Eren, I . . .”

He waves his hand. “Don’t. Whatever you’re going to say . . . Reiner, it doesn’t matter.”

He breathes in shakily. “I . . . we’re at peace, Eren. If you’re going to kill me, I can’t blame you, but—”

“Kill you?” Eren looks at him oddly. “I don’t want to kill you, Reiner.”

“One of the last things you ever said to me was, “I’m going to kill you in the most painful way imaginable.””

“Oh,” Eren says. “I vaguely remember saying that. But look, I’m not—” he sighs. “I’m not going to act like you’re a friend, Reiner. But I understand better than you might think I do. You were a kid, and thought you were saving the world, right?”

Hesitantly, Reiner nods. 

“Well then. You didn’t have much of a choice. Again,” he says, and a shadow falls over his eyes, “I can understand better than you think.” 

Reiner drinks the rest of his bourbon in one long swing, then raises his hand for another. The bartender slides it down. He takes a healthy sip from this one, too, and then turns to look back at Eren. “Right then. So, uh. You and Mikasa, then?”

“Yep,” Eren says, tucking a proud smile into his mug.

Reiner nods. “There was a betting ring on that in the 104th, you know?”

“Yeah, I knew,” he says. “Would you have made any money, Reiner?”

Reiner swallows. “Uh. I had five on the pair of you getting together sometime after graduation.”

Eren snorts. “Mikasa and I got married when we were nineteen. So I guess you would have, then. You know, had you not gotten nearly everyone else in the 104th killed.” 

He flinches.

“How about you?” Eren says. “Anybody special in your life? Have you gotten your head on straight, yet?”

“As much as anyone can, after war,” he says. “Not well enough yet for a relationship, I think.”

“Fair enough,” Eren says. “Mikasa and I definitely rushed into ours. There were a couple misunderstandings I could have done without. We got married like twenty minutes after we first admitted we were in love with each other.”

Reiner coughs. That’s—pretty funny, actually. And somehow perfectly in character. “Congratulations?”

“Thank you. You can buy my drink if you mean that. Between that, and getting my mom killed, you owe me.”

“Uh. Yeah.” How else is he supposed to respond to that, really? And why is he _always_ paying for everybody else’s food? “So you two eloped, then? And . . . ran away to Svizzera?”

“Yep,” Eren says. “It was . . . I was in a bad place. We—Hange, Levi, Jean, Connie, Sasha, Armin, and Mikasa and I, came over to Marley seven years ago, to learn what we could. See what the outside world thought about Eldians. And I . . .” He rubs his hand over his face. “The Attack Titan, my Titan, had the ability to see memories from inheritors in the future. I had—I still have—memories of the Rumbling. I was walking around Marley believing with everything in me that every person I saw, I was going to kill. The Rumbling . . . It was . . . you can’t imagine the horror it would have caused.”

Reiner swallows. Even the mention of the Rumbling sends a chill through his bones—to hear Eren talk about it happening like it was real is deeply unsettling. “I can—”

“You can’t,” Eren snaps. “You might be able to come closer than most, but nothing you imagine will be half as awful as what I still see in my nightmares. And it was going to happen. I was so sure it was going to happen. I was standing alone in front of a refugee camp, looking at all those innocent people I was going to murder, when Mikasa came up and found me. I was . . . at that moment, all I wanted was to run away from it all. I couldn’t fathom unleashing the Rumbling and murdering the world. I was looking for a way out. I asked Mikasa what I was to her, and she confessed, and we found someone to marry us, and we ran off to Svizzera.” He shakes his head. “I thought I would just get to live with her for the last few years of my life, and that was enough. But,” he gestures down at himself. “Here I am.”

“Here you are. Here _we_ are.” Reiner shakes his head. “I don’t suppose you have any idea what that’s about, do you?”

He exhales. “I’ve got _an_ idea. I’ve no clue if it’s right. But I had . . . when Mikasa was pregnant with Little Carla, I had some _weird_ dreams.” He doesn’t elaborate on that. A long, awkward silence passes.

“So, uh,” Reiner says. “Speaking of. Three kids. Congratulations.”

“Thanks,” he says. “Noah’s the oldest, and Little Carla’s the one your—sister?”

“Cousin.”

“Your cousin gets along so well with. The baby is due in June.”

Reiner nods. He feels like he’s been hit with a hammer. “Any ideas for names?”

“I’m pushing for Levi, if it’s a boy. Now that we’re trying to get back into contact with Paradis, I feel like he’ll be less likely to kill me if I named my son after him. Mikasa disagrees.”

“I might have to go with her on that one.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He rolls his eyes. “She likes Alex, or Michael. And if it’s a girl we’re going with Bell.”

“That’s cute.”

“Thanks. It’s my idea.”

Reiner lays his head on the bar. “I’m not drunk enough for this. Wait. So, through all those negotiations, all the threats and ultimatums that Armin made about unleashing the Rumbling—those were all bluffs?”

“I suppose,” Eren says. “We didn’t get a lot of news. But there’s no way Paradis could have done anything; Mikasa and I haven’t had anything to do with it for seven years.”

“God,” Reiner says. “Armin is fucking scary, man. He had us all completely convinced that the world was one bad move away from destruction.”

“You were, frankly,” Eren says. “It just wasn’t a move you could’ve made. Mikasa saved the world.”

Reiner lifts his hand, but not his head, and the bartender slides a shot down to him. He knocks it back. “You know, for all that I put five bucks on you two getting together, I wouldn’t have bet the fate of the world would on it.”

“Yeah, well, Mikasa’s just that awesome.”

“Will you kill me if I drink to that?”

“No. I fucking _won._ Take that, Jean, and every other guy who ever had a crush on her.”

“Like there was ever a competition.” He takes a swig of his beer. “She’s nuts about you, man.”

Eren grins. “Yeah”

There really isn’t a lot to say, after that. They finish their drinks and Reiner pays. They head back to the hotel, and Eren goes in and comes down a few minutes later with Mikasa.

“Hello, Reiner,” she says. She looks different at twenty-six than she did at fifteen. Her hair is longer, coming to just past her shoulders, and something about her face is softer. Obviously, she’s seven months pregnant, too, and that makes a marked change from the flying demon of a girl that haunts his dreams. She’s still easily one of the most beautiful women he’s ever seen. It’s not all that hard to believe that Eren deserted for her. 

“Mrs. Jaeger,” he says with a respectful nod. 

She smiles. “You know, that’s the first time anyone other than Eren has called me that.”

“Huh? Oh, that’s right. You two were calling yourselves the Kruegers, yeah? Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” she says. “So, Eren and I are still planning to catch the show . . .”

He nods. “Good. Gabi and Falco loved it, I’m sure you’ll have a great time, too. And I’ll pick up my kids at nine?”

“Make it ten,” Eren says. “We’ll have to catch a later showing than the one we planned.” 

“Sure thing,” he says. “I . . . I guess I’ll see you then? And maybe . . . see you around?”

Eren shakes his head and half-smiles. “Maybe. I don’t know that we’ll be able to pry Little Carla off of Gabi, so we’ll see.”

He sticks his hand out to shake, and Reiner does so without hesitating. “I’ll see you, Eren. Mikasa.”

Eren drops his hand and takes Mikasa’s. “See you, Reiner.”

***

Reiner goes home, takes a painkiller, and lies in the dark until 9:30. When he picks them up, Gabi waves forty bucks in his face and Falco presents a handful of scribbly drawings that the Jaeger children had drawn.

“Did you have fun?” he asks weakly. He remembers what Eren and Mikasa had been like as teenagers—he’d been fond of them, but there’s a very real chance that their genes have created literal demons. 

“Yeah!” Gabi says. “Little Carla is super cool. And Noah and Falco got along; they’re both total nerds.” She pokes her boyfriend in the cheek, grinning. “And Mrs. Krueger left dinner for us. It was great. She’s so nice! I can’t believe you never mentioned them, Reiner!”

“Yeah, Reiner,” Falco says, confiscating the money from Gabi and putting it in her purse. “You always told us about your stories from the Mid-Eastern front, how come they never came up?”

“There’s a lot I don’t tell you.” He has no good answer for that. “Do you two want ice cream?”

“Hell yeah,” Gabi says. “Oh, and give me the address of this parlor, so we can take the kids when we come back next week.”

Reiner drops his forehead onto the steering wheel, setting off the horn. _HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONK,_ it blares. 

“Reiner?” Gabi asks. She pulls his head off the wheel. “What’s wrong with you?”

“We do not have the time for that,” he says. “Put your seatbelt on, we’re going.”

 _Next week,_ he thinks. _God help us all._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m not going to get into the politics of what happened, but basically when Eren and Mikasa disappeared, Paradis went “. . . okay it is time to **bluff our asses off** ” and it worked, as it had for a century before. Happily ever after ✨
> 
> My own love for Reiner may have influenced Eren and Mikasa’s reactions here. Oh well. 
> 
> Come talk to me on tumblr @inbothourhandsgloria. (I made a sideblog.) Also, I am still looking for a beta reader! Posting stuff with no feedback is nerve-wracking, and I really would like to have some second opinions before I publish the actual heavy stuff.


End file.
